Analysis of steel members using FEM and Big data

Abstract

This paper describes trends concerning the analysis of steel structures using FEM and Big Data from two perspectives: i) the increase of the computing capacity and ii) the de-sign guidelines. For the former, computers allow performing considerably vast studies for frames, members or cross-section verification. For the latter, guidelines follow a particularly careful pace when it comes to standardizing new methodologies related to the use of FE in the analysis of steel structures. Both trends move at a rather different speed, with consequences in steel design in a broad sense. The paper presents emphasis of the discussions in the frame of TC8 encompassing “Numerical Modeling”- “Structural Design”- “Statistics” and “Big Data”.